republicans or editorial writers nailing the president for not pushing entitlement reform, the president stuck his neck out only to have the rs go shopping to a guillotine. "all in with chris hayes" starts right now. good evening from new york, i'm chris hayes. there is breaking news tonight. the president of the united states unexpectedly taking to the podium less there and three hours ago to issue a warning to russia as what appear to be a russian forces move into crimea in ukraine. >> we are deeply concerned about reports of military movements taken by the russian federation inside ukraine. the united states will stand with the international community affirming there will be costs for any russian movements in ukraine.

>> i should be bringing you news tonight of a new $21 billion veteran benefit package signed today by the president. but i am not because that bill died in the senate yesterday when it failed to get the 60 votes it needed to overcome a filibuster. and you will never get which party killed it. i mean, we all know which party is on the side of veterans, right? they tell us all the time. remember when they all headed to the world war ii memorial during the government shutdown to complain that the other anti-vet party was shutting veterans out? >> i will go anywhere any time a veteran needs me and i can get there to help and i've done it my whole life. it's who i am. >> they deserve being able to get into this memorial. >> one of you who served our country, who risked our lives, let me just say thank you. >> we will not be timid in calling out any who would use

our military, our vets, as pawns in a political game. >> got that? republicans will call out anybody who wants to use veterans as pawn. well, guess what they did when democrats led by independent vermont senator -- senator mcconnell tried to add a poison bill to add sanctions to iran. that is a bill that's backed by republicans and many democrats and would impose a new sanctions regime on iran, which both the white house and the iranians say would threaten the historic talks that right now represent the best chance we have to bring a peaceful resolution to iran's nuclear program. think about that for a moment.

republicans were pushing an amendment that could heighten the possibility of another war, this time with iran, at the very same time they were working to kill a bill that would have helped the veterans of the last two wars. this from the party that would never use veterans as political pawn pawns. harry reed, for one, was not happy. >> all 26 organizations supported that legislation, plus 24 other veterans organizations. and what happens over here? the republicans, they figured out a way to say no. they always do that. >> the gop also argued the veterans bill cost too much and it want paid for. this is really important. the $21 billion for the bill was set it come out of the overseas contingency operation fund, the fund used to pay for the wars in afghanistan iraq. there's some money left in that fund because we have draw down

and are drawing down in afghanistan. the republicans say that money does not count, that it's not recognized as real savings by the congressional budget office. that is true. but so is this. that money is a fund that was here mark ear marked for the wars. had we planned to stay longer for afghanistan, had we still been there in iraq, believe you me we would have spent in a money and that spending we would have spent that money and that spending would have been very, very real. the cbo says this bill would have increased the deficit. if you can run a deficit to go to war, you can run a deficit to take care of the people who fought in it. joining me is the chair of the senate committee on affairs, the senator from vermont.

they said the multi-billion dollar bills face to make necessary reforms. what do you say to that? >> i say they're dead wrong and so does virtually every veterans organization in the country representing millions of veterans. chris, what i have learned since i've been chairman of the veterans committee is the cost of war is much deeper and more significant than i think most people know. we're talking about hundreds of thousands of young men and women coming back from iraq and afghanistan with ptsd and tbi. we're talking about 2,300 of you're soldiers who suffered wounds so that they're unable too have babies. we're talking in terms of older veterans, you have women, wives staying home taking care of disabled vets, 24 hours a day, seven days a week who get virtually no kinds of support from the federal government. you're talking about young

people who were promised a college education after they left the service not able to afford that education. you got a whole lot of issues out there that this legislation addressed. that's why it had such enthusiastic support from the veterans community. >> and the republicans say we can't afford it. >> well, here's the interesting thing. anybody who knows anything about congress knows that our republican friends are fighting hard and have given huge tax breaks, we're talking about hundreds and hundreds of billions of dollars to the wealthiest people in this country. they support a situation where one out of four major corporations in this country doesn't pay a nickel in federal income taxes. that's okay. it's okay to go to war in iraq and afghanistan without figuring out how you're going to pay for it, just putting it on the credit card. what this bill does is take less than 2% from the oco fund, less than 2% to make life a little

bit better for the men and women who put their lives on the line to defend us. and it really was quite incredible to see almost all republicans -- we got two -- almost all republicans put their partisan loyalty ahead of the needs of the veterans in this country. >> are you going to take another reason at it? you got senator halorran? >> oh, we're going to take another shot at it. >> senator bernie sander, thank you. >> the american legion is saying there's a right way to vote and

a wrong way and 41 senators chose the wrong way. that's inexcusable. do you feel that way? >> sure. we have 400,000 online supporters and there's complete, unanimous sport among all veterans group. it's great to see them come out so strongly and oppose what happened in the senate and fight for veterans of all generations frankly. >> what do you say when you hear republicans say this will add to the deficit, we can't afford it, we have to pay for it in some other way other than taking from that contingency fund? >> to take john mccain and lindsay graham, they were very

much trying to push the obama administration to extend u.s. forces in iraq. i mean, you had a member of the republican house caucus call to put u.s. troops back into iraq after fallujah fell several weeks ago. they are all about keeping u.s. troops extended past when we pulled them out of iraq. now we're having a debate in afghanistan where the administration looks like they want to go to zero. they're all about keeping troops in afghanistan yet when it comes to paying people, there's no money. this would have gone to help a lot of returning veterans get inside the v.a., lower the back log and helped kids have better g.i. bill benefits frankly. >> this is so important, senator john mccain and lindsay graham, both of whom filibustered this bill yesterday, that overseas contingency fund, that money would have been spent if we had stayed, right? no one would have voted no and

choked off funds to continue occupation in iraq, no one would have choked off funds to continue occupation in afghanistan. >> they would have had to have done another supplemental. they would have spent billions and billions and billions of dollars more. there's complete hypocrisy. we're now drawing down, finally after 14 years of war and so many veterans -- the big question is how many times did you go? because nobody went one time. everybody went two or three. we're finally at a point now where maybe there's light at the end of the tunnel, a drawdown is coming at the pentagon. lindsey and mccain would not only have spent all this money, they would have to have got more. if you support the sanctions with iran right now, i hate to be so frank about it, you're supporting another war. that's the path it's going to put us on. to see everybody love war so much without taking care of the

veterans when we come back, these are practical ways. the back log is a big issue. if you're a kid and you come back to north carolina but you don't get into a school in that state and you want to go to another one, you don't get that difference paid for. this would have done that. this would have allowed someone like me to go to the v.a. for ten years, and that's why so many veteran groups supported that bill. >> john, thank you so much. >> thank you. >> up next, a surprise statement from the president prompts the question is russia invading ukraine as we speak and if so, what should we do or not do about it? that's coming up. get the it card and see your fico® credit score. [ car alarm chirps ] ♪ [ male announcer ] we don't just certify our pre-owned vehicles.

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did russia just invade ukraine? that's the question ricochetting around the world tonight as all eyes are on crimea. >> it began in the dead of night, unknown gunmen surrounding the main airport in crimea. by day it was clear they were pro-russian and against any repeat here of ukraine's revolution. after the surprise on land came the shock in the air. russian helicopters, some gun ships, flying over crimea, what ukraine said was a violation of its airspace. next, the sea. a russian warship blockading ukrainian coast guard vessels from leaving port. russia admits its armor and troops are on the move, these men blocking the main military airport, where tonight hundreds more russians flew in, ukraine says 2,000. russia says it's for security

but whose security and is that really all? along ukraine's borders, russia drilled its troops, tens of thousands of them. russian jets flying near crimea, the message to ukraine's new leaders loud and clear. >> that was nbc's bill neely. the president addressed those movements and issued a warning to russia. >> however, we are now deeply concerned by reports of military movements taken by the russian federation inside of ukraine. russia has an historic relationship with ukraine, including cultural and economic ties and a military facility in crimea. but any violation of ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity would be deeply destabilizing, which is not in

the interest of ukraine, russia or europe. it would represent a profound interference in matters that must be determined by the ukrainian people. >> joining me by phone is democratic senator chris murphy of connecticut. senator, your reactions today of the president's statements? >> i'm glad the president came out and made a very strong statement. these actions are concerning. the russians, as they did in georgia, marched troops in to try too create a contested region. the result in the long term is very bad for russia. in georgia it effectively drove the rest of the country beyond the contested region into the hands of the european union. they've done a similar thing in moldova and the same will happen in ukraine. it got solved today whether or

not they are able to carve off a portion of ukraine into russian sovereignty, the crimea, the rest of ukraine is now destined for europe. these short-term bullying tactics on behalf of putin obviously blow up in their face. this is very disturbing. we'll try too use all the power we have to push bag. but this is not going to be in the long-term interests of russia, nor the entirety of ukraine. >> let me ask when you say all of the power we have, i mean, i saw a lot of reaction today, particularly from conservatives but from a number of people that, you know, the president is being weak, his statement wasn't strong enough, this is what happened when john mccain said the president had been naive about vladimir putin, that we have to get tough, push him back. what do as any of that amount to any kind of concerted policy sense? >> i think everyone has to be pretty realistic here.

i don't think there's appetite in the united states, in red states or blue, to march u.s. troops into ukraine in order to fight a proxy war on russia's border. that being said, there certainly are tactics that we can take in concert with our european allies to economically isolate russia and make them pay a true kocost. frankly, from a military standpoint, i do think it's about time for some of our european friends to recognize that they might be next. this is now a pattern. if you upset russian integrity, if you cross vladimir putin, the next step may be invasion. that's happened now in georgia and in ukraine in a matter of about a decade. so, you know, whether it be the germans, who have always been sort of sitting back when it comes to issues of military intervention or others in the e.u., i'm not suggesting they marshall an army to march into

crimea today but they have to be a little tougher on the russians as well. >> senator chris murphy of connecticut on the phone with us tonight. appreciate it. >> thank you. >> up next, remember the scramble to fix healthcare.gov? >> we have people working overtime to boost capacity and address the problems. >> one of those people will join us next to share the incredible behind-the-scene story about how a team of elite techies essentially rescued obamacare from total disaster. spokesperson: we decided to settle this. a steel cage death match of midsize sedans.

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. millions of americans are more secure and will be more secure because of what we did. millions of americans. [ applause ] because as democrats, we believe that no hard working american should ever go broke just because they get sick. >> just a short while ago the president touted his signature achievement to democrats, encouraging them to embrace the health care law they fought so hard to get passed. what a difference a few months can make. >> today was the first opportunity for millions of americans to go to these new exchanges and sign up for insurance under obamacare. >> it was supposed to be a day of triumph. american watched with great anticipation as healthcare.gov

made its debut. >> i can't getting this error page. it's 15 minutes into this call. this is the second call. i've probably spent almost 20 minutes on the known phophone n. we started about 35 minutes ago. i'm going to hang up and call it a day. >> it quickly became clear things were not going as they expected. and that was just the beginning. >> let me show you what we got. please wait. >> important -- your account could not be created at this time, the system is unavailable. >> there were error messages or that annoying twirly thing. >> thousands of people were getting error messages. a memo leaked revealing after the first full day of operations, there was a grand total of six enrollments. and new reporting from a journalist revealed at of october 17th, the president was thinking of scrapping the whole

thing and starting over. needless to say the president had a problem. the prognosis was grim for his signature policy agreement. >> you've probably heard that healthcare.gov hasn't worked as smoothly as it was supposed to work. >> but just when it seemed like no one else could help -- >> there's no sugar coating it. nobody is more frustrated by that than i am. >> the president called on his tech surge a-team. a rag tag handful of technology experts, including a google engineer, a rocket scientist and dnc tech wizard were hired to fix the site. >> we've got people working overtime, 24/7, to boost capacity and address the problems. >> their mission -- to save obamacare. >> those are the people they reached out to on beginning october the 18th or so and those are the people who rode in to the rescue. >> the group decamped to suburban d.c. and set the ground rules. rule number one, the war rules and meetings are for solving

problems. rule number two, the ones who should be doing the talking are the ones who know the most about the issue, not the ones with the highest rank. rule number three, we need to stay focused on the most urgent issues, like things that will hurt us in the next 24 to 48 hours. then they got started, slowly working through the punch list, revolutionizing the entire site's functionality, sometimes searching for a single code out of millions. they were away from home, dealing with outages that left them unable to work for days. a project they thought would last days lasted nearly ten weeks. the group spent their thanksgiving eating pies at their desk. >> these people worked through thanksgiving, worked right up until christmas eve, literally worked 19 or 20 hours a day. >> each day the team worked, the extended enrollment deadline came closer and they watched as

the number of users rose and rose. on that day alone, 129,000 people enrolled, five times as many in a single day as what the site had handled in all of october. on christmas eve, the group parted ways, mission accomplished. joining me now is one of those elite 18 members, my good friend paul smith. it's great to you have here. >> hey, chris. >> congratulations on a job well done. i should start on the question of mission accomplished. is it mission accomplished? >> i wouldn't say it's accomplished but it was as bad as your package laid out and it's miles, ions, light years better. >> what are we talking here when we say it's bad. it really was a disaster? >> response times, so the time it took for you to click on the site and get a response to be upwards of 8 seconds or more. the site was down for more than half the time. error rate was very high. >> only 3 of 10 people at one

point were even just getting into the thing. >> exactly. so i was part of a small team -- i'm a software engineer. that means i build web sites and applications, i worked on some big sites that have gotten a lot of traffic. i worked with some other engineers who had similar backgrounds, a group of five of us, and we went in deep with the people who had built healthcare.gov and saw that it was just as bad as everyone who was trying to get on the site new. >> take me back too that moment. you're called in, everyone is panicking and you're like show us what you got and your reaction is oh, man. >> right. i think we initially thought we might be doing a few-day evaluation, make some suggestions on what to do next. but when we saw that it required more expertise and more operational experience, we basically dropped what we were

doing and moved to northern virginia and spent the next two and a half months turning the site around. >> this is a question that you're maybe not the best person prepared to answer but i'm going to ask it anyway. how did it get so bad? how does this very signature thing get so bad that they have to call in you guys? >> well, you know, a lot has been written and said about how bad it was and what went wrong and, you're right, i came in -- i was called to help fix the site. so, you know, i think expectations for government services, i think because the web and consumer web sites that you go to and shop and use every day, they set the bar pretty high for government services. and now the people who build web sites and applications that we rely on every day, you know, they don't tend to -- they don't

typically work in government contracting. so i think we need to do more to bring some of those people over. >> was there a point where you all realized you turned it around? because it was an open question. you come in and you think this thing might just not work. it might actually need to be scrapped, right? that was a real possibility at some point? >> actually, i don't think we really thought that was an option. we saw a technology problem, and technology problems as my friend mikey dickerson would say can be fixed. the real challenge was the human problem. could we get this disparate group of government contractors working together, coordinating and focused so we could execute and get those fixes done in time. we knew by mid-october we only had a few weeks to get the site in shape for the surge of traffic in december. >> you're working, you're working and every day goes by, you're closer, you're closer.

is there a point where you feel like the nose of the plane came up and you guys looked around and said, okay, i think we have got something that can really function? >> yeah. i think the fact that -- the war room that your package eye li-- highlighted was a key part to that, it set the tone for the sense of urgency for getting the site fixed. there were a few moments where -- i think of one where the site was down and there was a problem with the database, it was a database that i never worked with myself personally but i knew the kind of problem that it had, hi run into that before. i worked with the database team to come up with a fix. because the site was down in the middle of the day, it was affecting people as it was down, we didn't have the luxury of doing the normal process for getting the code reviewed and deployed. so we did what was called a hot fix and just -- >> fixed it while people were using it.

>> basically we had to deploy the code and the only way we'd know that it worked was to see it live in the world. and it was a nervous-making moment for sure, but we deployed the code and the site came back up. and i think it was because we had the war room process, because at that point we had really changed the speed of execution on the site, that moments like that gave us confidence that, yeah, we can really fix it. >> paul smith, part of the team that helped fix healthcare.gov. many thanks, man. >> happy birthday. >> thank you. up next, the senator who opposes medicaid expansion, even though he himself is a medicaid recipient. ♪ yup. another pill stop. can i get my aleve back yet? ♪

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would reauthorize that state's private version of the medicaid expansion. despite that he himself is a beneficiary of medicaid. after a tragic accident involving a mixture of alcohol and driving left him uninsured and paralyzed, with a million dollar of medical bills, most of them picked up by medicaid, he continues to benefit from medicaid today. he insists he and his colleagues were blocking the expansion and are not trying to take away health insurance from 100,000 citizens currently covered under that plan. >> nobody in our group is wanting to take 100,000 people off of this coverage that currently exists. i don't think there's anybody in the arkansas legislature that wants to deny somebody health care. >> that is the claim anyway, but

it's not necessarily exactly true. as the "arkansas times" max brantley responded this morning, "there's no kind way to put this. it is inaccurate and miller knows it is inaccurate. to knowingly say something inaccurate is, well, a lie." here's how a fellow lawmakers described it "koz art said he would like to see some caps. it would kill it." if they want to take away health insurance away from 100,000 people, they should own that. as i told representative miller last night, the whole country is watching. hey linda!

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6,028 members and they are very white, very male and very old. you should know that the academy got its first black president this past summer and notable hollywood folks like jennifer lopez, rosario dawson and steve mcqueen were recently invited to join. since academy membership is for life, turnover is pretty slow, even if 200 of the academy's oldest members pass away and retire and are replaced by those whose demographics mirror those i just mentioned -- then there was this anonymous look at who they really are. "it's as closed to pandering as

you can get." and on best animated future "i have no interest whatsoever." come sunday when you fill out your oscar pools, just try to imagine 6,000 of those dudes making their choices. so is this right that there really is no big consensus front-runner in best picture this year? that seems to be the case. david? >> well, i know what they love best and what they love best is "gravity." i know what they think they should do. it's sort of like do i love it? do i want to do something good for the world? >> you think it's "gravity" and "12 years a slave"? >> yes. but there's a lot of love for

"american hustle" as well. will they cancel each other out for the escapism vote and leave eye 12 years a slave." it's also about how hollywood wants to present itself to the world. it's about time there was a halfway decent movie about the slave -- >> it's fascinating how slavery, when you look at slavery's representation in film, it's not all tradition. it's been a pretty disastrous one through the years. part of that has to do with the fact that the american historical relationship to slavery has been pretty disastrous and film has been as much a symptom as a cause. >> it also speaks to who gets to direct the films about slavery, who gets to write them, who gets to produce them. so you haven't seen a whole lot of really investigative pieces about what the slave trade is really about.

i think as you look at the selection of what's up for best picture this year, "12 years a slave," "gravity," "american hustle," you should also talk about what's missing. you talked about who is part of the academy membership. that speaks to what's missing. you're missing of course the great french lesbian love story. there are reason it is didn't get nominated for best pictures, france didn't screen it in time but the actresses should have been up for something. critics love them. and then a film that takes some chances, that's about real people. so hollywood missed some great movies that should have been part of that list. >> even though they expanded to ten now -- >> "the dark knight" prize, when it want nominated for anything, remember all the kids were in an

uproar. this is the token, the way they can throw a token. >> but only nine made the cut. there has to be a real consensus. i agree about "before midnight" but at least it got a nomination for best adapted screen play. >> do you have a favorite for best picture? >> my only personal favorite, i do believe "12 years a slave" is a searing, deeply moving portrait. i saw it at the film festival -- >> searing, deeply moving -- >> draw it up right now. >> i do recognize that "gravity" is probably going to win a lion's share of the awards sunday night. >> i said this before, people could care less what i think about films because who does care. i thought it was a technical marvel and i just completely -- >> didn't you see it on your tv? >> no, i didn't see it on my tv. >> you had to sit really close,

had you to have the dramadine. >> i think my favorite is "12 years a slave." it's hard to say it's a favorite when it left me disturbed. it's not something you want to see as entertainment. it's not your wife says here's a date night, let's go see "12 years a slave." >> considering the difficult of watching that film, and it is difficult to watch, it performed relatively well on the market, saying something about the ability too overcome the ugliness of the material to make something transcendent and sub lime that people watched it and told who are to watch it. >> it delivers as a narrative. i'm into the going to say it made a happy ending. i'm not spoiling anything, "12

years a slave," he gets free after 12 years. you do know that at the height of despair. >> i also want to talk about gender and this question, why do we have best actor and best actress categories? why is it we don't have best female and best director, best female and best male composer and editor. gender has nothing to do with that. i want to talk about and talk about gender and film right after we take this break. using natural gas this power plant can produce enough energy for about 600,000 homes. generating electricity that's cleaner and reliable, with fewer emissions-- it matters. ♪

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we have to get him to the infirmary right away. >> what kind of thing? i need a clear organism. >> wait a minute. you know the procedure. 24 hours for decontamination. >> he could die in 24 hours. open the hatch. >> can you open the hatch? we have to get him inside. >> and sigourney weaver made "alien," she broke down traditional gender roles as the lead in a sci-fi horror movie.

actors average 86 minutes on screen and lead actresses average only 57 minutes. that brings us to the bechdel test. first question, does the movie contain two or more named female characters? do they talk to each other and do they discuss something other than a man? that's it. "american hustle," "dallas buyers club," philomena." the answer is why is there not one category, it's because women would be even less represented. >> absolutely right. and despite the amusing test,

"gravity" wouldn't pass because there's no second male character. do you damn the film because the female character dominates as the anchor emotionally. i prefer instead of dealing with the test, calling attention to the fact that at least "before medical night" did get one nomination is not your typical hollywood girl and even though "enough said" didn't get in there, "short term 12," one of the best films of the year -- >> what is that? >> brie larson, a breakout performance, why this film wasn't seen in every house in america, including yours -- >> i got a 2-year-old, right? >> look at the nominees, all of them were released in the last three months of 2013. >> it's also worth talking about other categories, too. look at best director this year. if steve mcqueen wins for "12

years a slave," he'll be the first african-american. of course you'll have things like the bechdal test and you'll have people fail it again and again because you're not seeing a diversity of people chosen. >> the double standard is you have a lot of chances for female directors and african-american directors. what you don't have is second chances for them. one of these people bombs and you'll have a lot of people who are chummy with the movers and shakers at the top. they'll get chance after chance after chance. they'll be allowed an honest failure. >> it's such a fascinating thing about the way hollywood works and who is in and who is out and how murcuriel that can be.

i remember it was 10, 12 years ago, i remember christina ricci being on the cover of every magazine and the advice is tuds of who hollywood finds fashionable, if i lived in that world, i would be insecure and out of my mind all the time. one minute you're the best and then no one wants to hire you. john travolta thought until "pulp fiction," he thought his career was over. >> and then you do have judi dench in there who transcend the obvious limitations, they make their movies and do great work and get nominated. >> this does include amy adams,

cate blanchett, judi dench, meryl streep, bruce dern in "nebraska," "12 years a slave" and matthew mcconaughey for "dallas buyers club e." is there one award you want to see the most? >> my favorite performance was "walking phoenix." i think mcconaughey will win. you know why he'll win? a, because he lost weight. b, because it happened to land at the same time as his performance in "true detectives." >> he's been taking chances and -- >> you're rooting for him? >> i would be happy for any of these men too win. >> michael b. jordan, he should have been on the list but

matthew mcconaughey will probably walk away with it. >> wow. stay tuned. great to have you here. >> thank you. that is "all in" for this evening. rachel maddow is next. >> i, too, wanted a moo could you. thank you for joining us this hour. our lead story tonight is an exclusive. you will not hear this story anywhere else. to get this story this week, we sent producers from the show basically to the end of the world. technically we just sent them to the end of the country. we sent them to the rio grande valley, the tippy toe of texas. it is so far south, it's south of mexico. if you want to get to chihuahua or tijuana in mexico, you go north from the rio an